Favorite train movie

[corsair7]

I don't recall Supertrain being very popular, might be why nobody has mentioned it.

It wasn't. It didn't even last a full season.

Irv

[tstage]

Wallace & Gromit, "The Wrong Trousers" - That contains the most realistic (and funniest) chase scene of all times.   Who says old milk bottles don't serve a purpose anymore...

Tom

[marknewton]

Another fine French film about trains--LA BATTAILE DU RAIL, made during the German Occupation (in fact right under their noses)...

According to the liner notes on my DVD copy, the film was made in the latter half of 1945, after the liberation of France.

Cheers,

Mark.

[stebbycentral]

So am I just showing my age?  I'm surprised no one has mentioned the extended train robbery scene with George Peppard that occures near the end of "HOW THE WEST WAS WON."

And I am really going back in time with this one.  How about TRANSATLANTIC TUNNEL?  This is a 1935 British science fiction film about an attempt to build a railroad tunnel linking New York and London!  I saw it 30 years ago at a college sci-fi film festival.

[HarryHotspur]

Disney's Great Locomotive Chase (1957) has been mentioned here a number of times.  This is a reasonably accurate --- I think --- telling of the Andrews raid of 1862, starring the irrepressible Fess Parker as James Andrews.  It was shot on the now-abandoned Tallulah Falls Railroad, down in the Carolinas someplace.  Although the real General still exists and is even operable (or was then) they used locomotives from the B&O Railroad Museum.

There's a very interesting short movie (40 minutes or so) about the Great Locomotive Chase shown at the theater in the Civil War Museum in Kennesaw, Ga. where the original General resides. The movie was made by volunteers at the museum which includes some movie professionals. The quality of the film is as good as as any you will see, due in part to the fact that Disney loaned a print of its original movie to the museum and allowed the museum to use any scenes they wanted, so long as none of the original actors faces were shown or voices were heard.

Hence, the final product contains such scenes as Fess Parker climbing into the loco (shot from Parker's rear) seamlessly blended into the scene inside the cab where the local actor's face is shown on screen. It is so professionally edited, no one would notice the editing. The entire movie (with the exception of one actor's god awful Southern accent) is first rate. I was absolutely blown away by the film. Of course, when I saw it I had no idea how it was made, and wondered how a small town museum came up with a $20,000,000 +/- in production costs.

Kennesaw is about 40 miles NW of Atlanta and the whole museum is first rate. Highly recommended. 

[twhite]

Dr. W--

LA BETE HUMAINE is quite a movie!  That opening sequence is definitely a stunner.  I believe the film was remade by Columbia in the late '40's and 'Americanized' with Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame.  Can't remember the title, but I think it was directed by Fritz Lang.  Pretty good railroad shots on the Southern Pacific, as I remember. 

Another fine French film about trains--LA BATTAILE DU RAIL, made during the German Occupation (in fact right under their noses) about the French Resistance interrupting rail traffic just prior to the Normandy invasion.  A stunning sequence showing the derailment of a train carrying German tanks to the Normandy front appeared in several other films.  Good movie, but VERY hard to find.  Definitely worth the hunt, though, IMO. 

Tom  

[DrW]

"La bete humaine" by Jean Renoir (1938, with Jean Gabin) contains a tremendous opening sequence of the cab of a French steam engine, including shots of taking up water for the tender from a trough between the rails.  You can watch it at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7EdZVJ-YQI

Interestingly, the engineer (Gabin) sits on the left-hand side, in agreement with the fact that in France (as in many other European countries) trains use the left track on double-track lines, and all signals are to the left.

JW

[twhite]

I faintly remember a rail theme film made in India ( probably an English production ) with the story line about an escape from a rebel up-rising ( seems a trifle familiar ) using an ancient train to move an important family to safety...

Was it called ' Norhwest frontier', or similar? 

Maybe slightly 'off topic', but someone may recall the film.  Had some great shots of buzzards/blood/trains....

Cheers,  Paul.

Paul--

That was a British film called FLAME OVER INDIA here in the US, and NORTHWEST FRONTIER in Britain.  Starred Kenneth More and Lauren Bacall, with a nifty British and Indian supporting cast (oddly enough, the movie was filmed in Spain, standing in for Northwest India).  You're right, it is a really exciting movie, with a delightfully quirky little train.  The plot is a re-working of "Stagecoach", but it's jam-packed with excitement, plus a REALLY suspenseful scene of the train being slowly worked over a blown-up high bridge.  I've got a copy on VCR and I like it a lot. 

Tom

[Tom Curtin]

Disney's Great Locomotive Chase (1957) has been mentioned here a number of times.  This is a reasonably accurate --- I think --- telling of the Andrews raid of 1862, starring the irrepressible Fess Parker as James Andrews.  It was shot on the now-abandoned Tallulah Falls Railroad, down in the Carolinas someplace.  Although the real General still exists and is even operable (or was then) they used locomotives from the B&O Railroad Museum.

[lvanhen]

Thanks George, not my very favorite flic/series, but the website is great - bookmarked it!!

[trainfan1221]

I gotta admit, that was a pretty cool website.

[PA&ERR]

George, where did you get the pic of the Supertrain model?  Neat!!

http://nbc_supertrain.tripod.com

Or just google "Supertrain" - it will be the first response.

It has an episode guide series history and behind the scenes photos and an entire section devoted to the models.

-George

[classic57]

I faintly remember a rail theme film made in India ( probably an English production ) with the story line about an escape from a rebel up-rising ( seems a trifle familiar ) using an ancient train to move an important family to safety...

Was it called ' Norhwest frontier', or similar? 

Maybe slightly 'off topic', but someone may recall the film.  Had some great shots of buzzards/blood/trains....

Cheers,  Paul.

[lvanhen]

George, where did you get the pic of the Supertrain model?  Neat!!

[PA&ERR]

I don't recall Supertrain being very popular, might be why nobody has mentioned it.

Yeah, I think there was only about a half a dozen or so episodes and the story lines were nothing to write home about.

I watched it for the models which were pretty darned impressive.

-George

[jacko73]

Does anyone remember "The Long Summer of George Adams" with James Garner?  It was a made for tv movie and was about the main character losing his job servicing steam engines as diesels were taking over.  I think it was set in about the late '40's or early '50's.  Truly a quality movie and Mr. Garner portrayed the main character beautifully.  Incidentally, don't feel bad if you don't remember the movie... it was made in 1982 and as far as I can tell, is not available in either VHS or DVD.

[twhite]

Lots of good ideas already here, but in addition to Burt Lancaster in "The Train", (which is a superior movie regardless of the trains) how about:

"It happened to Jane" with Ernie Kovacs, Doris Day and Jack Lemmon

"The Professionals" with Woody Strode, Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster and Robert Ryan

"Bite the Bullet" with Gene Hackman, Candace Bergen and James Coburn

None of these three are "Oscar material" but all are great entertainment and feature lots of train shots. Each featured great Hollywood stars playing character types that they are frequently identified with and had nice direction and editing. (Bite the Bullet builds slowly than the other two and is a bit more subtle -- yet has a sort of sappy ending that conflicts with the basic theme of the story)

I strongly recommend all four above movies.

You've got great taste in movies, there.  I love the scene in IT HAPPENED TO JANE where that cute little New Haven Pacific driven by Doris Day and Jack Lemmon holds up the 'Limited', which I believe is the original "Yankee Flyer".  Cute plot and really nifty train sequences. 

And THE PROFESSIONALS is simply one of my all-time favorite westerns (with a GREAT last line from Lee Marvin after Ralph Bellamy calls him a "B---ard").  You're right, it's got spot-on train sequences, especially that ex-Great Western 2-8-0 that does double duty, as an American and then a Mexican locomotive.  I think the director, Richard Brooks was pretty much of a railroad fan, it sure shows in both this and his other BITE THE BULLET, which I also like a lot. 

As to THE TRAIN--it's just SUPERB!  PERIOD!  On the DVD, director John Frankenhiemer is quoted as saying about the final confrontation, "I decided to let Paul Schofield just TALK himself to death."   Boy, DID he!

On another note:  The train-robbery sequence in Sam Peckinpah's brilliant THE WILD BUNCH where William Holden and Ernest Borgnine steal the Army ammunition to run it into Mexico is one of the best sequences of its type I've ever seen.  Jaw-dropping and knuckle-biting. 

Tom

[J1aK4sfan]

Lots of good ideas already here, but in addition to Burt Lancaster in "The Train", (which is a superior movie regardless of the trains) how about:

"It happened to Jane" with Ernie Kovacs, Doris Day and Jack Lemmon

"The Professionals" with Woody Strode, Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster and Robert Ryan

"Bite the Bullet" with Gene Hackman, Candace Bergen and James Coburn

None of these three are "Oscar material" but all are great entertainment and feature lots of train shots. Each featured great Hollywood stars playing character types that they are frequently identified with and had nice direction and editing. (Bite the Bullet builds slowly than the other two and is a bit more subtle -- yet has a sort of sappy ending that conflicts with the basic theme of the story)

I strongly recommend all four above movies.

[jayo]

Mystery Science Theater 3000 riffed a short film titled "Last Clear Chance" which talks about safety at the railroad crossing, among other things.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Naix-f6KSIg

Yeh I liked that one, they also did "Days of our Years" which was another UP-made short about these different people who go from happy-go-lucky to miserable-for-life!  Interesting it was seeing a guy running a switcher, have a heart attack, crash, and later sit in front of his house, in good shape again! 

Movies with trains I like:

-Van Ryan's Express

-Disney's "The Great Locomotive Chase"

-Keaton's "General"

-DeMille's "Union Pacific"

-McClintock

-Wild Wild West('99 film)

-The Polar Express

-October Sky

[Guilford Guy]

I'm going to have to say that my favorite train movie has got to Emperor of the North with 

 Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin. I really do think that,  movie shows what happened back in the "golden age" of railroading durring the Great Depression.

Its also an excellent lesson in bad language~! 

The Journey of Natty Gan has some interesting railroad scenes.

Go West has hilarious train scenes... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02xnnIzjucE

I could only find the mexican one. I like how between 1:34 and 1:39 it changes between a 2-8-0 and a heisler. 

[CSXrules4eva]

I'm going to have to say that my favorite train movie has got to Emperor of the North with 

 Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin. I really do think that,  movie shows what happened back in the "golden age" of railroading durring the Great Depression.

[goose]

My favorite train movie is one called "The Titfield Thunderbolt" which was made in England back in the 50's.  It is about an English village that is about to lose their local train service, which is being replaced with bus service, and all of the villagers rise up to keep their train service to the extent of taking an old, old steam engine out of a museum and trying to get it to run.  The movie is full of laughs.  You can get the movie from Netflix.

[gmhtrains]

For outright comedy in a train movie, no one has mentioned Go West with the Marx Brothers. There is not much left of the train at the end as the coaches are chopped up to fuel the wood-burning steam locomotive.

Two films that several mentioned as favorites were The General and Emperor of the North, both filmed on the Oregon Pacific & Eastern shortline east from Cottage Grove, OR. That railway lasted through 1987 primarily to be a featured attraction at the '87 NMRA national convention in nearby Eugene. Today the OP&E right-of-way is a bicycle path.

I think that there would be more agreement on a list of 20 (or 25) best railway movies than on trying to single out one favorite.

Gil Hulin 

 

[ABaileyIAm]

     Top three would have to include "The Greatest Show on Earth", "Silver Streak", and "Bridge on the River Kwai".

[twhite]

Hows 'bout, "THE GREATIST SHOW ON EARTH" circus trains!?

THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH has some terrific shots of the circus train--one early in the film pulled by a Pennsy GG-1.  Only thing that bothers me about the film is the long sequence using miniature trains leading up to the famous train-wreck.  If you look closely, you'll see that the locomotives are Hudsons and lettered for the Rock Island.  Don't ever remember the Rock Island having Hudsons, LOL, but the wreck sequence is just jaw-dropping!  Fun movie. 

Tom  

[twhite]

No votes for Murder on the Orient Express?

And, how about Supertrain (you could count the 2hr pilot episode as a movie)?

-George

One problem about Murder on the Orient Express (which I like, BTW) is that all of the nefarious goings-on are accomplished while the train is snowbound and stopped.  For really neat mysterious plot machinations while the train is mostly 'in motion', I'd suggest Alfred Hitchcock's very entertaining 1938 spy thriller THE LADY VANISHES.  Takes place in an unspecified Alpine European country with nasty Nazi's and British secret agents.  A lot of fun. 

Tom  

[jamnest]

What about "Bridge on the River Kwai?"

I also liked an old TV show about building a railroad which stared Dale Robertson, "Scalplock"  I think the show only lased for one season.

I also liked the Wild, Wild West; TV and Movie. 

[ccaranna]

"Runaway Train" is cool, I don't think anyone mentioned it thus far...

I also like "The Train" and "The Station Agent".  I'm sure there's a lot more that have trains in them but I can't think of them.

Another good one, though the trains are just part of the scenery and set and aren't the centerpiece of the story is "Matewan".

[trainfan1221]

I don't recall Supertrain being very popular, might be why nobody has mentioned it.

[PA&ERR]

No votes for Murder on the Orient Express?

And, how about Supertrain (you could count the 2hr pilot episode as a movie)?

-George